1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable weapon.
More particularly, the invention relates to a portable weapon such as a smoothbore rifle, or shotgun.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Shotguns generally include a supporting structure constituting the frame or housing, made of steel or light alloy, for example Ergal.
The materials used to manufacture the frame in conventional weapons provide excellent performance from the technical point of view, but also have the drawback of high cost. Furthermore, a frame manufactured according to conventional methods has a high production cost caused by the relatively large number of machining operations required to obtain it.
Conventional weapons, such as the shotguns, also have a stock, generally made of wood or possibly plastics or metal, for example of the folding type.
The drawback of this conventional structure is, in this case also, due to the need to assemble the various parts that constitute the stock and to assemble the stock to the weapon.
DE-19512178 discloses a shotgun having a plastic housing provided with a metal insert.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,461 discloses a lightweight automatic rifle having a hollow plastic housing provided with a metal sleeve.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,216 discloses a plastic rifle stock with panel inserts.
FR-814.999 discloses a fiber based stock for a portable weapon.
The above mentioned prior art weapons require a number of production steps to manufacture the stock and housing.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a portable weapon, particularly a smoothbore rifle or shotgun, which solves the above mentioned problems of the prior art.
A further object of the invention is to provide a shotgun that is cheap from the point of view of production.
A further object of the invention is to provide a shotgun that can be obtained with a substantially reduced number of manufacturing steps compared with conventional methods for manufacturing weapons.